eBay Email Marketing Tips
eBay email marketing is undoubtedly one of the most under used features of an eBay shop. It allows you to build a list of potential customers who have expressed an interest in your products and the opportunity to remind them to re-visit your eBay listings.
It’s worth pointing out that under UK law you’re not allowed to send business orientated emails to consumers unless they’ve specifically opted in to receive your marketing. In addition the eBay user agreement prohibits you from sending marketing (either by email or traditional post) as set out in the Spam Policy and the “No Spam” section of the eBay User Agreement.
By building email marketing lists through your eBay shop you can over time build up a legitimate list of subscribers who have opted in to receive your email marketing meeting both eBay’s requirements and fulfilling legal obligations. eBay themselves append emails with opt out information and ensure that they’re only sent to legitimate subscribers.
Building email marketing lists
The first thing you should do when you open an eBay shop is to rename the Mailing Lists which customers can sign up to. eBay’s default is a single list entitled “General Interest” and simply renaming this to “Sales”, “Special Offers”, “Wholesale” or if appropriate for your products “Christmas Specials”, or “Valentines Gifts” makes a huge difference to the number of people that will subscribe.
To encourage people to sign up to your email marketing make sure that you have links prominently displayed in your eBay shop. Make use of the Listing Frame to add in the default “Sign up for Shops newsletter” link and add a link to your email signature. Rather than using eBay’s “My Messages” to respond to customer messages if you use your email client your email signature will be appended to all replies to customers.
How to construct effective email marketing
When you send email marketing to your subscriber lists think about what will appeal to customers. If you are using “MarkDown Manager” to discount items in your eBay shop send email marketing to highlight this. Over the Easter school holidays send an email highlighting a series of auctions to encourage buyers to place a bid and possible grab a bargain.
At times of year that you know buyers will be in the market for your products you can highlight these either by hand selecting products to be highlighted on your email marketing, or by automatically selecting them based on the criteria you set. This can be by keyword, by shop category, newly listed, highest or lowest price. eBay will then automatically update your email marketing with relevant products from your eBay listings according to the criteria that you select.
Think about how you feel when you receive marketing, unless there is a specific message with a hook to make you look further you probably simply delete the email or if it’s a mailer simply throw it in the trash. Email marketing should have a strong message which will capture the reader’s attention along with a call to action such as “Place a bid” or “Buy now”.
” A great method for attracting buyers is to include a special offer in the email marketing only available to email marketing subscribers.”
A great method for attracting buyers is to include a special offer in the email marketing only available to email marketing subscribers. A simple way to set this up is to choose a single product and set it as a fixed price multiple quantity listings with Best Offer. In your email tell buyers that they can purchase at a discounted price and that the offer will be accepted, and of course when you set up the Best Offer on eBay make sure you check the auto-accept button at the price that you’re offering in your email marketing. Using this method it’s possible to attract buyers to a single listing and sell large quantities of product so long as you’ve built a reasonably large list of email marketing subscribers.
Email marketing is all about sending a key message to potential buyers along with the call to action. Used successfully you can use it to increase sales, attract previous customers to purchase from you again, and to liquidate slow selling or end of line stock. If you’ve not set up your email marketing lists that’s the first place to start, and as soon as you’ve built a reasonable number of subscribers start constructing emails and give buyers a reason to re-visit your eBay shop.
Links
(These links are only relevant to sellers who have subscribed to an eBay shop)
Email Marketing
Mailing Lists
Listing Frame
MarkDown Manager